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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Well, I finally tuned my piano yesterday using Tune Lab (and yes, I talked to my tuner before hand) OK, I have to admit the following:

1. It was a little scary, since this was my first time. (I'm sure we all remember our first time experience.) The piano registered 8 cents flat, (I live in Chicago and the piano is not quite two years old although it was tuned in September.). I felt like I had 10 thumbs and it definately ain't as easy as it looks to get the pins to settle on the desired pitch. (In my case it went something like this:.. sharp, flat, sharp, flat, a little sharp, OMG flat again, grrrrr. I certainly learned the importance of touch and feel when using the tuning lever.

2. I first tried to tune according to intervals, beats and tests but I'm not quite there yet. I finally defaulted to just following and setting according to Tune Lab and listening for what tone sounded right to me. When I was finished, I did test 4th to 5th and did a sequence of a 3rd progression, tweeking a little to satisfy my hearing. I was able to hear beats and will work on using beats in the future.

3. This experience took a bit over three hours to complete, A0 - C8), and I am very pleased with my results, for my first adventure into tuning. OF COURSE, I will not compare this to what an experienced tuner would have achieved but a good start none the less. I will play on it all week and check next Sunday to see if my pin setting held the pitch.

In summary, Hats off to professional piano tuners. What you make look so easy actually is quite difficult to acheive. I enjoyed my experience and plan to learn more about tuning and the workings of the piano. I do want to thank all of the members of this forum who took the time to responded to my postings and offered suggestions, (whether they required a fire suit or not. Honestly, you all responded with my best interest in mind.

Thank you gentlemen and ladies. Professionalism is more than certifications and knowledge. It's more about attitude and a willingness to help with advice. Wayne

A pitch raise using TuneLab's overpull function before attempting a fine tuning would have helped stability substantially. The default overpull setting of 25% would work fine with a piano as new as yours. If you go from A0 to C8 using this function, the piano will end up very close to pitch.

You will not get stability out of a piano that's 8 cents flat without an initial pitch adjustment.

You're welcome, Wayne. I'd say 5 cents would be good for most home pianos, but with concert instruments, a pitch raise is a good idea if it's 3 cents flat. It really depends on the instrument.

The other day I tuned a C and A Steinway B for a Taylor Eigsti concert. The piano was 10 cents #, but it was just about in tune. That's fairly common, from what I gather. I just left it there....fortunately, it was a solo concert.

You set the tuner for the calculated drop when you are more than 2 cents off. The wound strings drop 12% so you leave the tuner set at 440. The plain wire drops out around 30%. So at 3 cents flat, set the tuner at 1 cent sharp and tune center strings and you won't be a cent flat when you are done.

I tuned an S&S D from pro piano for a concert that was at 442. The contract with the artist, Franc D'Ambrosia, vocalist,specified 440. I dropped the pitch. Really, everytime I get into the tuning, I find it's all over the map. It's easier to make the corrective pass than fight the touch up. On the D, the two hardest notes to settle were A4 and A3.